Short Takes Daily: What's going on in the world of Microsoft this Monday, June 8, 2015

​As we start this week, the big tech news is taking place over at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). But there's a Microsoft tie-in to the new developments in Cupertino, and we've got Microsoft's latest Windows 10 news, plus updates to Office 365 and Skype.

ON OUR SITE/OUR SISTER SITES

HP Enterprise Intends to Join the Hybrid Cloud Party Platform

Put down Wireshark. It's overkill.

Existential Cloud Problems

Clean Installers Rejoice - Windows 10 Build 10130 ISOs Released

Windows 10 Deprecated Features with Alternatives

Windows 10 update remedies failed flyouts

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WHAT'S NEW IN WINDOWS 10

Microsoft released the ISO images for Windows 10 Insider Preview build 10130, a good news/bad news scenario in that Microsoft is pushing out only the ISO images, but not pushing out the build to Slow Ring folks until a handful of issues are addressed in 10130. Slow Ring insiders need not despair, as you can install the build like this:

The build 10130 ISO images are located here and all you have to do is sign in with your Insider credentials and download the ISOs.

At that point you can either mount the ISO inside of Windows 10 and perform an in place upgrade or, if you hit the 0x80146017 error during that, you can do a full install to replace your current build.

In other Windows 10 news, we have a list of how you can simulate the functionality of now-deprecated features in Windows 10 (we know you're out there, Desktop Gadgets superfans); Microsofties took to Twitter to confirm that there will be no annual fee for Windows 10 as of 2016; Windows guru Woody Leonhard has run a very helpful "facts vs. fiction" cheat sheet to dispel some of FUD around the upgrade process.

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WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT WWDC

Apple Music, a new streaming service that'll run users about $10/month to start, isn't picky about platforms; it'll be available on Windows by the end of the month. Given Microsoft's own moves with music recently -- dropping the Xbox branding and changing its interface to look more like Spotify -- it will be interesting to see who grabs what percentage of the streaming music market and on which devices and platforms. Stay tuned.

Also, the planned updated to iOS 9 have put Cortana on notice: Siri will be able to provide suggested contacts, something Cortana can't quite do yet. The Verge has a great chart comparing the iOS 9 version of Siri against the latest versions of Google Now and Microsoft's Cortana. Take a look to see who's leading where. Their conclusion:

Each system has its strengths over the others — Google's has a wealth of support for third-party apps, Microsoft's has a fun and engaging personality, and Apple's has the ability to work locally on your device with any email service that's compatible with Apple's Mail app.

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OFFICE 365

The Web interface for Office 365 introduced some new tweaks, including a "What's New" pane (to tell you what's been added to the app), a floating notifications pane on the right-hand side of the screen, and the option to start a Skype conversation when you're still in your Outlook inbox. This is handy for those moments when you're blazing through your to-do list and you just want to knock off a quick conversation, yes?

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SKYPE HYPE

As Microsoft says:

To bring Skype Translator into more people’s lives, today we are happy to announce that the Skype Translator preview technology will be coming to the Skype for Windows desktop app. We are targeting the end of summer 2015 for the roll-out to begin.

The Skype Translator handles four spoken languages right now -- English, Spanish, Italian and Mandarin -- and can translate another 50 via the chat function.